Mark Lundberg
Encyclopedia
Mark Lundberg was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1980s up until his sudden death in 2008. He began his career as a bass
, then progressed to portraying baritone
parts, and finally settled as a dramatic tenor, winning acclaim portraying Wagner
ian heroes like Siegfried, Tristan and other standards of the dramatic repertoire. Samson from Saint-Saëns
's Samson and Delilah
and the title role in Giuseppe Verdi
's Otello
became "calling cards" for him. Standing at six and a half feet and possessing a big frame and a dark beard, Lundberg made a striking figure on stage. His shoulders measured 6 and a half feet around and the Denver Post once Described as "a big blonde bear of a man", a fitting description for such a large man
, Lundberg was the son of an Episcopalian priest and his earliest music experiences were singing in his father's church choir. He studied singing at Indiana University
under the great Wagnerian soprano Margaret Harshaw
. After spending some time in college, he moved to New York City where he pursued further studies with Maitland Peters.
Two important early successes for Lundberg came in 1988 when he sang in the United States premieres of Richard Strauss
's Friedenstag
and Krzysztof Penderecki
's Die schwarze Maske
, both with the Santa Fe Opera
. Over the next decade he sang mainly in second tier houses in the United States and Europe, and it wasn't until the early 1990s that his career began to take him to major opera houses around the world. During this time he sang his first Bacchus in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
with the Opera Nice and later with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in 1995.
In 1997 Lundberg sang the role of Samson for his first appearance with the Scottish Opera
. He would go on to sing that role several more times over the next eleven years, including performances with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, New Orleans Opera
, Opera Omaha
, Michigan Opera Theatre
, and Hawaii Opera Theatre. He made his debut with the San Francisco Opera
in 1999 as the Drum Major in Wozzeck
. He sang Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
for his first performance with Opera North
in 2001. In 2002 he sang the title role in Verdi's Otello
for the first time with Utah Opera, a role which he sang frequently over the next six years in such houses as the Teatro Arriaga
, Hawaii Opera Theatre
, Opera Ontario, Opera Lyra Ottawa
, and the Manitoba Opera Association. In 2003 he made his first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
portraying the title role in Wagner's Siegfried
under conductor Sir Andrew Davis. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera
on October 5, 2005 as the Officer in Ariadne auf Naxos with Violeta Urmana
in the title role. In 2006 he sang Tristan at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie
in Brussels
.
In 1994, Mark recorded the first Act of Die Walkyre with Edda Moser on Calig records.
Lundberg died at the age of fifty after a brief illness. He and his wife Anya had one child, and he had three children with his previous wife, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's second pianist, Melody Lord Lundberg. At the time of his death, Lundberg was scheduled to perform Samson at the Anna Livia International Opera Festival in Dublin in the summer of 2008 and with the Pittsburgh Opera
in October 2008.
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
, then progressed to portraying baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
parts, and finally settled as a dramatic tenor, winning acclaim portraying Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
ian heroes like Siegfried, Tristan and other standards of the dramatic repertoire. Samson from Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
's Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)
Samson and Delilah , Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire...
and the title role in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
became "calling cards" for him. Standing at six and a half feet and possessing a big frame and a dark beard, Lundberg made a striking figure on stage. His shoulders measured 6 and a half feet around and the Denver Post once Described as "a big blonde bear of a man", a fitting description for such a large man
Biography
Born in Denver, ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Lundberg was the son of an Episcopalian priest and his earliest music experiences were singing in his father's church choir. He studied singing at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
under the great Wagnerian soprano Margaret Harshaw
Margaret Harshaw
Margaret Harshaw was an American opera singer and voice teacher who sang for 22 consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan Opera from November 1942 to March 1964. She began her career as a mezzo-soprano in the early 1930s but then began performing roles from the soprano repertoire in 1951...
. After spending some time in college, he moved to New York City where he pursued further studies with Maitland Peters.
Two important early successes for Lundberg came in 1988 when he sang in the United States premieres of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Friedenstag
Friedenstag
Friedenstag is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his Opus 81, to a German libretto by Joseph Gregor. Strauss had hoped to work again with Stefan Zweig on a new project after their previous collaboration of Die schweigsame Frau, but the Nazi authorities had harassed Strauss over his...
and Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
's Die schwarze Maske
Die schwarze Maske
Die schwarze Maske is an opera by composer Krzysztof Penderecki using a German libretto by the composer and Harry Kupfer which is based on a 1928 play by Gerhart Hauptmann...
, both with the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
. Over the next decade he sang mainly in second tier houses in the United States and Europe, and it wasn't until the early 1990s that his career began to take him to major opera houses around the world. During this time he sang his first Bacchus in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
with the Opera Nice and later with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in 1995.
In 1997 Lundberg sang the role of Samson for his first appearance with the Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
. He would go on to sing that role several more times over the next eleven years, including performances with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, New Orleans Opera
New Orleans Opera
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
, Opera Omaha
Opera Omaha
Opera Omaha is an opera company in Omaha, Nebraska. It is well known for premiering Wakonda's Dream, a contemporary opera about Native Americans set in the Niobrara....
, Michigan Opera Theatre
Michigan Opera Theatre
Michigan Opera Theatre is Michigan's principal opera company. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Each year it presents an opera and dance season. The company usually presents five operas in their original language with English supertitles and hosts five...
, and Hawaii Opera Theatre. He made his debut with the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
in 1999 as the Drum Major in Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
. He sang Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
for his first performance with Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...
in 2001. In 2002 he sang the title role in Verdi's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
for the first time with Utah Opera, a role which he sang frequently over the next six years in such houses as the Teatro Arriaga
Teatro Arriaga
The Teatro Arriaga is an opera house in Bilbao, Spain. It was built in Neo-baroque style by architect Joaquín Rucoba in 1890, the same architect that built the city hall...
, Hawaii Opera Theatre
Hawaii Opera Theatre
The Hawaii Opera Theatre is an opera company located in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became active in 1961. The company typically performs three operas during February and March in Blaisdell Concert Hall...
, Opera Ontario, Opera Lyra Ottawa
Opera Lyra Ottawa
Opera Lyra Ottawa is a professional opera company founded in 1984 by soprano Diana Gilchrist after the demise of the National Arts Centre's summer festival opera productions. The company's current leadership team is General Director, Elizabeth Howarth and Artistic Director Tyrone Paterson...
, and the Manitoba Opera Association. In 2003 he made his first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
portraying the title role in Wagner's Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
under conductor Sir Andrew Davis. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
on October 5, 2005 as the Officer in Ariadne auf Naxos with Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana, born Violeta Urmanavičiūtė is a diva who began her career as a mezzo-soprano but has transitioned successfully into soprano roles....
in the title role. In 2006 he sang Tristan at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
In 1994, Mark recorded the first Act of Die Walkyre with Edda Moser on Calig records.
Lundberg died at the age of fifty after a brief illness. He and his wife Anya had one child, and he had three children with his previous wife, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's second pianist, Melody Lord Lundberg. At the time of his death, Lundberg was scheduled to perform Samson at the Anna Livia International Opera Festival in Dublin in the summer of 2008 and with the Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of two opera companies in the city, the other being Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the...
in October 2008.